The Light To Darkness
by 0erbayunFang
Summary: Everyone has their own reasons for following a certain path: jealousy, fear, bravery and idiocy being only some of many of them, but righteous and good intentions can only get you so far. What compels someone to act, to save a life in the midst of utter chaos? What compels someone to try to rescue the already damned? And why do so many people have to die trying?
1. Defiers of Fate

_**A/N: Here it is; the prequel to Better Days at last! It really surprised me when that story became so popular; it wasn't that great and it was only my first! You guys made me feel so at home here that I just had to write more.**_

_**Sorry it took me so long: my computer effed up and I have to use my school laptop to write stuff, on which Fanfiction is blocked (the wretches). **_

_**Full Summary**__**: Everyone has their own reasons for following a certain path: jealousy, fear, bravery and idiocy being only some of many of them, but righteous and good intentions can **__**only get you so far. What compels someone to act, to save a life in the midst of utter chaos? What compels someone to try to rescue the already damned? And why do so many people have to die trying?**_

**The Light To Darkness**

**Chapter One**

**Defiers of Fate**

"_The thirteen days after we awoke…were the beginning of the end." - Vanille_

The train shuttered along the tracks suspended high above the ground at high speeds, making the otherwise beautiful scenery look like blurred splotches of coloured paint upon a canvas if someone were to look out a window. However, this train was not designed to carry tourists leisurely over cities and jagged cliff-sides. No, this train had other purposes today.

In the many compartments, elite PSICOM soldiers stood guard over the other civilians dressed in similar white garb with loose sleeves, complete with hoods which hid their faces in shadows, and with blue and black linings. The huge hoods hiding them in shadows were probably by design, so none of the soldiers would get a glimpse of any of the deportees' faces and get cold feet, backing out of the oncoming massacre. A pink-haired woman used these convenient shadows to glare at one of those passing soldiers. The Purge had begun.

"You serious?" the man next to her whispered.

"Shut up," she answered.

"Hm. Best o' luck."

All she had to do was wait for a convenient moment to strike, just like her namesake. Lightning. It flashes bright, then fades away.

This is exactly what she did.

She waited until one of their unlucky guards were sufficiently distracted, then jumped him, kicking him in the gut, then catching his gun, which he'd dropped. After shooting him down, she continued onward toward where they were keeping their belongings, successfully ignoring her audience. With the spell over them seemingly broken, they too were fighting back. The man she'd met while boarding the Purge train was right behind her, chasing, trying to catch up to her. She ignored him, clicking her fingers and activating her standard-issue Grav-con unit, only given to Guardian Corps soldiers, sneaking up on an oncoming soldier and shooting him before he could get his eyes on her. Only a couple soldiers guarding a potential arsenal. So typical.

Meanwhile the man was behind her, kneeling down in front of a blond-haired boy with his arms wrapped around his knees in terror.

"It's alright, I'm not a l'Cie," the man comforted the boy. He looked up and saw the chocobo chick in the stranger's hair give a happy 'kweh!' The boy smiled.

"Tch," Lightning muttered, and grabbed her Blazefire Sabre, putting it into her holster, which she'd kept for precisely this reason. She heard her unwanted companion catching up to her and grabbing his weapons, casually throwing them into their respective holsters while the other civilians grabbed their stuff, some doffing their white attire.

"So far so good. They all want to fight!"

"Good for them."

Right in the middle of the fight, a huge rumble shook the train, crashing down and tearing their compartment in half. The train skidded to a halt right in the middle of the Hanging Edge, and of the massacre-in-progress.

"Run!" her unwanted companion yelled. She jumped on top of the train. "I meant _away_!" The man slowly and reluctantly joined her, both of them facing a huge white Manasvin Warmech. For a short moment she stood there, eyeing the huge scorpion-shaped thing and it eyeing her back, rune-inscribed claws rotating menacingly at them.

She could barely hear her uninvited guest grumbling to himself, and then he asked, "What do we do now?"

"Watch and learn." She flipped her gunblade into sword mode smoothly, it becoming an extension of her arm. Her companion stopped grumbling and followed her example, drawing his guns and firing. This only seemed to irritate the robot, as it raised its tail and shot a ball of power in her direction. She dodged, slicing away at every part of the thing she could reach until she had to dodge again.

She could hear her ally taunting the robot, which seemed to irritate it further as it tried to slice at him. "Not so tough now, are you?" he yelled. The robot sliced again, inches away from his chest.

"Hey, that wasn't like a challenge, now!" he shouted, his voice a mixture of barely-controlled fear and panic. "Whoa!" _Why was he here, then?_ Lightning rolled her eyes and continued to attack the thing until she could hear electricity crackle from the tears in its body made by her blade. The yellow light left its eyes and it collapsed, sliding off the top of the compartment and taking the long fall to Lake Bresha below.

_One step closer, _she thought as she flipped her gunblade into gun mode and slid it into the holster. Its familiar weight gently bumped into the backs of her legs as she circled the train car's roof they were standing on.

"Aren't you supposed to protect civilians, Soldier?" Sazh asked Lightning. "I mean, what are you doing, trying to stop the Purge? Why don't you tell me that?"

"I _was _a soldier," was her only reply as she somersaulted off of the train car, leaving Sazh alone with only his chocobo chick in his hand for company.

"Chocobo, we just can't catch a break, can we?" he addressed it, and it replied with a small 'kweh!'

"That's a good question," he said, then put it back in his hair. "Guess we'd better follow her. I'm gettin' too damn old for this," he grumbled as he climbed clumsily down the wrecked train car after the mysterious woman. Almost as soon as he landed loudly onto the trussway, she tensed and ran forward at the soldiers in front of them.

"Fixin' to ditch me already, are you? Are you sure we can get through here?"

She said nothing in reply as she drew her gunblade once again and started attacking the soldiers, all three of them PSICOM Wardens. They started to fire at the pink-haired warrior-woman coming their way but before they could get a clear shot she was in the air, flipping over and behind them, and sliced their backs without even breaking a sweat. Sazh watched on in amazement and slight disgust as they crumpled. They hardly saw _that_ coming.

He walked forward so he was standing in front of the summoning portal nearby. "What do you suppose this is? Is the army leaving its toys out now?"

This happened another time, the next couple of soldiers up: she surprised them and ended their lives in the same ten seconds. Sazh was astonished, but he really shouldn't have been. After all, she was a soldier. But what he didn't get was why she was attacking her own.

As they approached another set of soldiers, one of them saw them from a ways away and quickly summoned two Pantherons from the summoning portal next to them. It made the fights tricky, but they had to fight together, or they would be lost.

"Great. The entire army came out to play!" Sazh grumbled. He didn't entirely miss out on the fights, but he wished he did. He really didn't want to fight, but as the PSICOM bastards were firing and attacking him, he had no choice. It was kill or be killed here.

_Just think of it as a stepping stone, _he thought just before a plane flew in low, firing shots in their direction. _Uh, make that a big stepping stone._

"I do _not _like low-flying things tryin' to kill me!"

Lightning rolled her eyes at that particularly blunt statement. She couldn't believe he'd stayed so long with her. What was he after? The same thing she was? She pushed that back. She'd think about that when it was absolutely necessary. For now, she had to focus on what was important.

"These guys don't seem interested in our side of the story, do they? Unbelievable, this place is a war zone."

Suddenly she stopped behind a piece of wreckage long left behind when Cocoon's shell was cracked. She looked around it to see yet another Warden and a Pantheron patrolling in circles.

As Sazh caught up, he said, "Not wanting to get Purged, I get. But taking on trained soldiers?"

"Better to die than get sent to Pulse." Lightning replied, surprising Sazh that she actually spoke after so long. "It's hell without the brimstone."

"Yeah, well, hell's not sounding too bad, 'cause this place ain't exactly paradise," Sazh pointed out, looking around and rubbing the back of his head.

Lightning fought the urge to roll her eyes again. "Domesticated peacekeepers. Nothing to worry about."

"Maybe not for Soldier Girl, but I'm just tryin' to say – hey!" He sighed as she ran off again, this time straight for the 'domesticated peacekeepers'. "Guess we, uh, have to fight again, huh?"

Lightning merely nodded in response as she flipped her gunblade into sword mode and started attacking again.

After they were all good and dead, she pushed past Sazh to take point. "No need to be pushin', now!" Sazh exclaimed, slightly annoyed at her apparent lack of manners.

The next set of enemies, several Pantherons and a Warden, still had no idea of their presence. Lightning ducked behind yet another piece of wreckage, waiting for her companion to catch up to her. As he caught up, she breathed, "Pre-emptive strike," then ran forward. Unlucky for them, the Warden caught sight and yelled, "Rebels!"

"So much for the element of surprise!" Sazh yelled, pulling out his Vega 42's for the millionth time that night.

When they were dealt with, the faint whir of air-suit engines, still able to be heard above the near-constant explosions and gunfire, alerted Lightning to the next set of enemies, some of which were in the air this time. That didn't stop her from taking them down, but not without severe consequences.

She flipped her gunblade into gun mode and quickly shoved it into its holster before kneeling down, agony coming from her left set of ribs. The aerial soldier had managed to fire off a missile burst before dying, the bastard, and when she pulled her hand away, her own blood stained her fingertips. She fumbled for her red pack strapped to her left thigh, managing to get it open but failed to find the potions necessary to heal her. She, despite her severe training, started to panic, and called out, "Sazh!" he looked back, and paled at the sight of her. He immediately kneeled down and took out his stash of potions, managing to pour an entire bottle down her throat. She could feel her skin and several broken ribs healing, knitting together underneath her fingertips with a tickling sensation she would never find the words to describe later. She, with Sazh's help, stood, and with the help of a newly-broken water-pipe, cleaned her hand of all traces of blood.

"Thank you, Sazh," she said stiffly, then walked forward purposefully as he trailed behind, lost in thought.

_What is her angle?_ Sazh thought. _She just…throws herself into battle, with no care for her well-being. _

He shook his head. She must surely have a reason. He ran forward to catch up to her, just as a huge explosion rocked the trussway they were currently running on. Sazh involuntarily ducked, shielding his eyes as the light blinded him. He straightened up then stared in disbelief, his mouth agape. Lightning merely looked on, long-since used to death and destruction happening around her.

The bit of trussway in front of them disconnected with the force of the explosion and took the long fall into Lake Bresha, taking several lives with it. Lightning walked forward quietly to the slightly slanted bit of trussway still stubbornly hanging on, strong enough to hold both their weight.

"What do we do? Do we turn back?" Sazh asked, slightly confused as to what Lightning was doing.

"There's no time," she replied.

"Then what do you suppose we do?"

"Quiet!" She looked mesmerising standing there, and then she clicked her fingers, activating her Grav-con unit, lifting her of the ground. Before she could get too far, she felt a pair of arms clutching her, stopping her from rising any further.

"Hey! Hey, no, no, don't leave me!" It was Sazh!

"Let go!" Lightning yelled, turning in his arms so she was facing him.

"Hell no, you're my only way outta here!"

"I _said,_" Lightning growled, hitting him in the shoulder, then giving him a roundhouse kick, sending him sprawling to the ground. She clicked her fingers once, twice, but nothing emitted from the unit apart from static sounds and blue sparks. She gritted her teeth and folded her hands into fists.

Meanwhile Sazh was still on the ground. He groaned and tried to get up, but just fell back down on his hands and knees. He looked up and saw a hovering trussway connection a little distance away.

"Hey, that might get us across!" he croaked, but Lightning could still hear, and looked to where he pointed. "Right there!"

Lightning bit back a scathing remark and said instead, "Looks that way."

"Just leave everything to me," Sazh groaned as he finally managed to get up, then, clutching his shoulder, ran over to the terminal. Lightning couldn't resist an eye roll as she followed.

"Seems to be in working order," he murmured as he hit some buttons on the control screen and activated the platform which would take them to the hovering trussway connection. They jumped off and onto the piece of trussway, Lightning eyeing the Marauder a distance away with two Enforcers accompanying him.

"This is not our lucky day," Sazh groaned, then spotted the two Enforcers. "Hey, he's a soldier too, right? Can't you like, pull some strings or something?"

The Elite turned and spotted them.

"Deportees, are we?" the Elite asked tauntingly. "Weapons down," he commanded even as he lifted his own. "I'd hate for this to turn ugly."

"Uh…'turn ugly'?" Sazh asked, confused.

"He wants to kill us without a fight," Lightning stated grimly, enlightening him some. All PSICOM soldiers were the same, it seems.

"Time's up!" the Marauder yelled as he lifted himself off of the ground, seemingly with a Grav-con unit, and sped toward them, stopping just five feet away from them. Lightning lifted her blade, ready to attack. She sped for the Marauder, then suddenly changed direction for the Enforcer to his right, escaping the Marauder's stab with his lance. She made short work of the Enforcers, then turned for the Elite. He was tricky, but with Sazh firing at him from afar, and Lightning attacking head-on, he didn't know who to go for, or who was the more annoying, so he went for Sazh. Bad move.

Lightning stabbed him from behind, severing his spinal cord and ending is life in one slice. She stepped over his body and headed over to the control terminal, but saw Sazh was already there, tracing his finger over the screen to the left.

"So, Soldier…what's your angle?" He'd been dying to ask that question over the past hour. Silence was his answer.

"What, is it classified military info? You quit, didn't you? You think I'm just gonna go out there and tell everybody your secret-?"

"The Pulse fal'Cie."

"What?" He was once again surprised she answered.

She turned to face him. "My 'angle'. I'm after the fal'Cie." She placed a hand on her hip, then walked over to face the massacre-in-progress. "Still happy you tagged along?"

Sazh became sombre for a little bit, and then murmured his answer, all the while thinking of the reason he 'tagged along' in the first place.

"Didn't have a choice."

* * *

_**A/N: Sorry folks, but I have to end the chappie here, but the next chappie is in progress, don't you worry! I'll be back with yet another update soon.**_

_**Ja ne!**_

_**0YF**_


	2. All Talk

_**A/N: Another chapter, as promised! I have high hopes for this story, because a lot of people liked Better Days, despite the number of reviews – who cares about the reviews? It has 4k views anyway! Oh, who am I kidding? Reviews make me smile. They're also like chocolate cookies to me. Consider me the cookie monster. Lol feed me, please?**_

* * *

**Chapter 2 – All Talk**

"_First impression of Snow? All talk." - Vanille_

Chaos was the only other word to describe what was happening at the resistance front, other than murder. PSICOM soldiers were shooting down innocent civilians even as they were taking up arms against them.

"_On behalf of Cocoon's citizens, I would like to thank our brave Pulse pioneers and express our best wishes for a successful relocation. Your noble and selfless sacrifice ensures the continued safety and peace of our society. Were it not for this remarkable gesture, every resident of Cocoon, your family, your friends, your neighbours, would be exposed to the dangers of the world below. By choosing to leave Cocoon, and participating in this migration –"_

A foot came down hard on the radio spouting the voice of the 75th Primarch, Galenth Dysley, in the middle of a speech. The owner of this foot had blond hair, mostly hidden behind a black bandanna. He had blue eyes, a 5 o'clock shadow and almost always had a smile on his face. He had on a black T-shirt underneath a blue button-down and a grey trench coat, black pants and black leather boots, and biker gloves on his hands. He was around 6 to 7 foot tall, and his name was Snow Villiers.

"'Migration'? More like 'extermination'," pointed out a blue-haired teen next to him. He was wearing the latest fashion from Eden, had blue eyes, and was currently carrying a loaded gun.

"Yuj, you stay here," said Snow.

"Sorry," Yuj apologised, embarrassed. "I didn't mean to-"

Snow shook his head. "These people need heroes!" he raised his fist for emphasis, and then reached out to straighten Yuj's hold on the gun. "Here. You keep your cool, and they will, too." He glanced in the direction of the deportees behind them so Yuj knew who he was talking about, and put a hand on his shoulder. "You got it?"

"Got it," Yuj confirmed, his embarrassment long forgotten.

"What's our motto?"

Yuj grinned, putting his gun across one arm. "The army's no match for NORA!"

Snow grinned and gave him a thumbs-up. "Attaboy," he said, and tousled Yuj's hair. He then turned and ran for a particularly large piece of debris. On the way, he could hear other deportees talking amongst themselves.

"Why even bother?" one asked to no one in particular.

"We never should've fought back," another groaned.

**…**

"Aw, this is crazy!" a blue-eyed, blond-haired teen with deep-pink goggles and a gun complained from behind a barricade at the front lines. His name was Maqui.

"Then take a nap!" a red-and-orange-haired man yelled back from behind the barricade next to the one Maqui was behind.

"Really? Can I, Gadot?" Maqui asked, excited.

"Sure! And when we're taking a _dirt_ nap, you can save 'em all!" Gadot yelled, just as a light thump from behind them signalled Snow's presence.

"Aw, that's even worse!" Maqui moaned, not noticing Snow, who was just next to him.

"No dirt naps today. We're all in this together!" Snow said, making Maqui jump and randomly fire his gun at an oncoming soldier. He shrugged, but kept firing. "Our enemy's the Sanctum! Their dreaded PSICOM, no less," Snow continued.

"What's to dread?" a female voice called from behind yet another barricade, in front of Maqui and Snow's. "PSICOM's nothing but a whole bunch of bluster and bullying. They've got nothing on NORA."

"Well, we are the heroes after all, Lebreau." Gadot stood, still firing.

"Let's prove it!" Snow stood as well, and Maqui and Lebreau followed suit.

"Yeah!" Lebreau and Maqui yelled.

"The Sanctum's gotta pay for this," Snow muttered to himself as a line of soldiers ran their way. They were done with quickly enough.

"Revved up and ready!" Gadot yelled as the last soldier from that line fell.

**…**

"We've gotta clear a path outta here," Snow called to the others as they moved forward to a piece of debris. He used it to hide behind and peek at the next horde of soldiers headed their way. Maqui used the piece of debris to lean against and fall to the floor.

"No more…" he moaned.

Lebreau sighed. "There are soldiers everywhere." She rested her gun lazily over one shoulder.

"Yo boss, what's the plan?" Gadot asked from just behind Lebreau.

Snow peeked around the piece of debris at the soldiers, and shrugged. "Charge in, guns blazing," he said casually.

"Hey! That's not a plan!"

"_Real _heroes don't _need _plans," Lebreau put in, grinning.

"How about this? We hit 'em hard, and hit 'em again!" And with that Snow was off for the next soldiers who were unlucky enough to cross his path.

"Better," Maqui allowed as he got up and followed him.

"Heh-heh," Gadot laughed.

"Don't you kids go fallin' behind, now!" Snow called out as he ran.

"Yeah, yeah," Lebreau muttered.

There was only one more group of soldiers to go before they came up to the group of deportees ahead. A couple of punches and many bullets later, they were through.

In the middle of the deportees and Snow and the others was a pile of guns. Lebreau and Maqui knelt down to ready them for the fights to come as Snow addressed the deportees.

"You all ok?" Snow asked. Finished with the guns, Maqui ran over to Snow but stumbled, dropping them.

"Hey, careful with those," Snow ground out, annoyed.

Maqui looked the other way and laughed; embarrassed, as Snow turned back to the mass of deportees. One woman caught his eye. She had a cream cardigan on with white tights and black-and-white shoes on. Her hair was silver, and she had bright-green eyes. Judging from the clothes she wore, Snow guessed she came from Palumpolum.

"Don't worry. No-one's moving to Pulse today. We'll clear a path outta here, so be ready to-"

A deportee stood, and shouted, "Wait! Let me fight with you!"

Another one, still in white garb, stood as well, and added, "You can't expect us to just sit here!"

Snow was surprised. He looked over to Gadot, and said, "Could help."

"Yep," Gadot replied.

The deportee who first spoke continued, "Please. Let us help." Before he could say more, or back out entirely, an explosion sounded in the distance, making the other deportees tremble and gasp in fear. Snow looked back and saw a hint of orange where the explosion had taken place.

"Ok then. Volunteers front and centre."

Snow's statement was followed with more than half the deportees standing and walking forward to grab a gun, handed out by Maqui and Lebreau, who also showed the novices how to fire and the proper way to hold them. Finally the woman Snow had noticed earlier stood.

A boy in white garb who was sitting next to her whispered, "Mom?"

The woman looked back and smiled slightly. "Don't worry," she replied, and walked forward to grab a gun.

Snow frowned slightly when he saw her standing in front of him. "You sure?" he asked her.

"Yeah," she replied, and Snow noticed the ring on her finger. She smiled grimly. "Moms are tough."

"Right." He extended a hand to Gadot, who gave him the extra gun. "It's the last one, boss," he informed him. Snow walked forward with the gun in his hands. Having no need of it, he offered it to the deportees. "Alright, last one. Somebody, take it," he said, flipping the gun so he was holding the muzzle in one hand. He then offered it to the woman's son. He scooted back, shaking his head. "No…I can't…" Snow could hear him mumble.

_Ah, he's just a little kid, _Snow thought as a girl still in white garb got on her knees and spread her arms out. "Here!"

Snow handed the gun over. "Push comes to shove, keep 'em safe." He winked.

The girl imitated shooting with a murmured 'bang!' and cocked her head at Snow like a bemused puppy. He pretended to flinch, having been 'shot'. He then addressed the other deportees. "All right, lay low and you'll be fine. We'll clear out the area," he said. "We're going home together!" he finished, punching the sky. There was no response from the group in front of him.

Lebreau sighed. "Come on! Everybody up!" she interpreted, beckoning for them to get up.

"Right. New recruits, on me!" Gadot shouted, and the volunteers followed except the silver-haired woman. Snow grasped her shoulder. "Come on."

"Yeah." She stopped to take one last look at her son as Lebreau grasped him by the arm and said, "Time to go, kiddo." His mother smiled encouragingly at him, then nodded and turned to follow Snow and the others.

Lebreau turned to Maqui and Yuj, who were assigned to stay behind and protect the deportees. "Take them to a vacant skybridge and get them away from this area. It's the best chance for them," she instructed. "If you screw this up while I'm gone, I will personally skin you both, if I'm still alive to do it," she added pleasantly, as if she skinned people all the time. Then she took off after the others, leaving Maqui and Yuj behind. They looked at each other and gulped, then lead the other deportees to a nearby skybridge that, thankfully, wasn't overrun by soldiers. Maqui piloted the massive thing and steered it over so that they could see what was going on, but weren't actually involved in the fighting. After that, everyone just went off on their own, careful not to fall off the skybridge, and huddled together with the people they knew for safety. The woman's son, who had inherited his mother's silver hair and green eyes, and the girl with the gun stuck together near the edge of the bridge so they could see what was happening.

**…**

"We're not losing to PSICOM, you hear me?" Snow called to the massive group making their way through the fight to the resistance front, gunning down the soldiers even as they were shooting at them.

"Stay sharp!" Snow scolded Gadot after he'd stumbled into a soldier, knocking him off of the trussway. "We don't want to make their job any easier."

"Sorry, boss!"

"Lebreau, back us up!" Snow instructed Lebreau, who responded, "On it!"

As they reached the final set of soldiers blocking them from the front lines, several more Pantherons burst from a bioweapons portal nearby. Snow gritted his teeth and barrelled into them, sending several flying over the edge of the trussway and down. Snow then pummelled the other soldiers and remaining Pantherons while Gadot, Lebreau and the others shot them down.

Snow ran forward next to Gadot. "All right! Let's shake things up a bit," Snow said, punching the palm of his hand. At that moment, one of the Wardens sent up a couple of bullets. "Mobilize BETA force! Take down the Resistance!" he yelled. A massive sky-tank hovered down over their trussway at his words – with a BETA behemoth on it. It gave an almighty roar and jumped down off the sky-tank, landing in front of Snow, Gadot and Lebreau. All three stared for a bit, and then composed themselves.

"Heroes don't run from fights," Snow declared, raising his fists. Gadot pointed the gun while Lebreau took out a couple of potions and placed them in her bra, sensing they would need them.

_The best place for a girl to keep things, _Lebreau thought, grinning and raising her gun.

And need them they did. Besides bruised knuckles on Snow's part, mostly because he always refused a weapon when offered, the BETA behemoth's claws packed a mean punch, and God damn, were they _sharp_. When it finally became nothing more than a lump of metal on the ground mixed with flesh, and sparks accentuating its bullet wounds, all they had to do was approach the barricades in front of them, and they had made it to the brunt of the chaotic warfare. Not long after they got there, most of the soldiers turned tail and ran, occasionally firing shots behind them. Seconds later, a Sky-tank was bearing down on them, shooting from its four turrets and killing most of the Resistance's volunteers. Gadot ducked down behind a barricade.

"Snow! We've got trouble!" he shouted.

"Yeah, no kidding," Snow murmured. He spied a bazooka left behind by one of the soldiers and had a reckless, dangerous idea. He glanced from the bazooka to the Sky-tank. If he could just reach that bazooka without getting shot…

He acted without thinking. He ran forward, dodging the bullets raining down upon him, and dove for the bazooka. He missed, landing on his back with it behind him and out of his reach. He reached for it anyway, but couldn't get a grip on it. He looked up at the Sky-tank, which was readying the main cannon. Snow gritted his teeth and prepared for his end. He prayed it would be quick.

_I'm so sorry, Serah._

Before he could think much more than that, the cockpit exploded, sending the tank into a slow fall. Snow looked behind him to see the silver-haired woman toting the bazooka, its muzzle smoking slightly.

"I told you, didn't I?" She offered Snow her hand. "Moms are tough."

Snow took her hand, and she helped him up. He looked over at the Sky-tank, and his eyes widened. The cannon was still primed – and it was preparing to fire.

Before Snow could blink, let alone warn the woman, the cannon let off a shot straight for her. Her eyes widened, and she fell forward. Snow was thrown back with her, but caught her before she could hit the floor. His back hit the ground hard, quickly followed by his head. Snow saw stars for a moment, but when he could see again, the piece of trussway that had caught the brunt of the cannon fire was now more like a ramp, sending its occupants down, along with debris piece after debris piece. Snow sat up, clutching his saviour in his arms, and cried out, "No. No!" He could do little but watch as people fell, taking others who could have survived with them.

Suddenly, and without warning, the piece of trussway they had landed on in the blast began to tip, forcing Snow up and into a run to catch the woman, who had fallen out of his arms and had begun to fall. He caught her, and a protruding piece of metal, just before they would've both fallen. Snow looked down at the woman, who was swinging precariously, unable to fall because of his hold on her hand and the metal. He felt his arm stretch slightly with another's weight, but could hardly do anything in this precarious a position. She looked into his eyes, pierced them with her own, and whispered, "Get him home…please…"

It was quiet, but Snow heard her. "Hold on!"

She smiled slightly, closed her eyes, and fell still. Snow felt her slip in his grasp.

_NO!_ He couldn't let this happen! But before he could do or say much more, she was falling.

"No!" Snow yelled. He looked down at his hand despairingly. The trussway he was desperately holding on to teetered, tipped, and finally broke off, sending him falling after her, the words of the woman still ringing in his ears.

As he fell, he thought he heard a boy scream.

* * *

On the skybridge next to the ensuing carnage, the silver-haired boy screamed and stretched out his hand for his mother. He couldn't believe she wouldn't come back. He was so caught up in despair; he didn't notice the explosion in the distance. His red-haired companion, however, did, and made to pull him away, but he wouldn't budge.

"Come on!" she groaned, giving his hand a half-hearted tug. Exasperated when he refused to move, she slapped him to get his attention.

"We have to move!" she implored.

"Al-alright, ok," he agreed. He felt disconnected from his body, like his soul had died along with his mother. He couldn't feel. All he could do was act.

So he let himself be pulled away from the horrible scene before him by his upbeat companion, unable to believe there was any hope left for him.

* * *

Meanwhile, from the safety of another skybridge, Sazh looked on at the horror of the Purge. By now, PSICOM had given up subduing in favour of massacre. His hand closed on a thick steel wire supporting the skybridge, refusing to close his eyes, refusing to blink.

"It's an out-and-out massacre," he choked out. "Those people won't even live long enough to die on Pulse."

Lightning stepped up next to him, her cool façade making it hard for him to tell what effect the massacre had on her. "That was the idea," she stated, a hint of sadness lacing her tone.

"What?"

She shrugged slightly. "Sanctum logic. They conjured up the Purge to eliminate a threat." She crouched down, gunblade resting on her shoulder, and continued, "I mean – why carry the danger all the way to Pulse? Why not just stamp it out here?" She stood up again, gun still resting on her shoulder, and looked over at Sazh. "Execution masquerading as exile. That's all the Purge ever was."

Sazh had stayed silent through her lecture, putting the pieces together as she handed them to him. He turned away from her.

"'Relocation to Pulse'. How does a government get away with pulling crap like that?" He turned to face her again, pointing a finger. "And you – you knew about this?"

She shook her head. "The Purge was PSICOM. Private Sanctum troops, not the Guardian Corps."

"PCICOM, Guardian Corps…soldiers are soldiers, aren't they?" he persisted, automatically using his hands for emphasis. "Pulse fal'Cie – and their l'Cie – are enemies of the state. Tell a soldier to kill an enemy, and you really think it's gonna matter what uniform he's wearing?"

She shrugged again, seemingly unfazed by Sazh's little tirade. "Might've mattered to that one." She gestured to one of the soldiers they had killed earlier. "Couldn't shoot, got himself shot instead." She walked calmly to the middle of the bridge as she spoke.

"What about you? Orders say shoot, you pull the trigger?" he called after her. When she responded with silence, he groaned, "Fine. Forget I asked."

Lightning, however, was distracted by something entirely different. She flipped her gunblade into sword mode. "Wait…what –?" Her eyes were fixed on the Myrmidon hovering straight for them. As soon as it landed, Lightning charged for it, aiming to cleanly slice off one of its arms, but it was too quick, and dodged. Gunshots ringing from behind her signalled that Sazh had joined the fight.

_About damn time he noticed._

Lightning charged for it again, this time flipping easily over it to land behind it. Taking advantage of its distraction, she turned and sliced through it cleanly, easily severing it into two pieces. Stepping over the Myrmidon's remains, she looked up at a siren's wail in the distance.

"What's that?" Sazh asked, pointing into the sky, where a huge thing was being transported through the sky, over the war-torn district.

_The Vestige, _Lightning thought.

"_Attention Purge deportees. Attention Purge deportees," _a voice sounded over the ensuing chaos, loud enough that everyone heard. _"Put down your weapons and surrender immediately."_

* * *

"_Your removal is the will of the people of Cocoon. Should you attempt to flee; the Sanctum will employ every resource necessary to bring you to justice. This land is no longer your home. Cease hostilities and surrender at once."_

Snow slowly managed to haul himself up off of the trussway he had fallen back-first onto. The fall was short enough that the only serious injuries he had were bruises, but he was still winded from the fall. He looked up and saw the Vestige being transported through the sky, with two Sky-tanks and a cruiser-class airship – The _Palamecia_, to be exact – as its escort.

"Serah!" he breathed, then doubled over in pain.

* * *

"Just what you were looking for," Sazh remarked, pointing upward at the Vestige, still in view from their perspective.

"Yeah. Right in there," Lightning replied.

"The Pulse fal'Cie. Huh."

* * *

The silver-haired boy and his red-headed companion also heard the warning, and saw the Vestige. The boy knelt down and doffed the white attire that marked him as a deportee. Underneath he wore an orange and yellow coat over a black T-shirt. He also wore dark-green three-quarter-length pants and a green neckerchief, as well as a yellow cloth tied around his wrist, a pair of dark-blue and white gloves and grey sneakers.

"Mom," a little kid next to him whimpered. His mother knelt before him.

"Don't worry, we'll be ok," she soothed.

_Mom…_

The silver-haired boy turned to see that his companion had finally taken off her white attire. She was beautiful, with her red hair tied into pigtails. Her clothes were…weird. Her skirt seemed to be made up of different fabrics, with some kind of pelt covering her butt and thighs. Her top consisted of what looked at first like a tube top, but upon further inspection the boy noticed the fabric went around her neck, beneath her necklace, which was made of multi-coloured beads. Lines of beads connected the necklace to a beaded belt around her middle, and another belt, this time made from a type of leather, circled her waist.

She smiled awkwardly at him, and then reached down for the gun she'd left at her feet. She turned and gave it to the boy. "Here."

He stayed still. She then pulled him forward to hug him. He was stunned. He couldn't move. She pulled back and put her hands on his shoulders.

"It's too much, isn't it?" she asked. She smiled slightly. "Face it later."

She stepped backwards. "Ciao!" she waved, and ran.

The boy dropped the gun he was holding. "Hey! Wait!" he called, and chased after her, the gun laying almost forlornly on the ground.

A brown-haired girl watched as they ran past. She frowned in thought for a moment, hesitated for a second, and then ran after them.

* * *

_**A/N: Hopefully that was a good chappie for all of you! I'm moving on to New Beginnings, then ST, then I'll probably come back to this one. These three are my priority atm, so…yeah.**_

_**See ya around, Kupos!**_


	3. The Vestige

_**(7,166 words) Well…I have nothing to say for myself, except that I had no chance to update until now because I didn't have access to the internet for a week. Before that, there was a holiday assignment that took priority. Originally, this was going to be longer – four thousand words longer. But then I thought, definitely too long, and cut it down. The rest of it will be in the next chapter though, which is in the works. Second Titanic and Better Days are taking the back-seat for now. Sorry guys. (Not to say that I won't be writing chapters for them, just not as many)**_

_**Disclaimer: I don't own anything except my OCs.**_

* * *

**Chapter Three – The Vestige**

"So, how do you figure that Pulse fal'Cie is different from the Sanctum's?"

Lightning crouched at the edge of the skybridge, estimating the distance between them and the trussway below. She then looked forward, where slowly, very slowly, a desolate building stood before them, inching closer. She frowned; how could her companion not see the imminent danger creeping closer? As she looked up towards him, she realised why: Sazh was looking down into his open hands, where his chocobo chick rested, chirping happily.

"All things being equal, I'd just as soon keep wondering," Sazh continued thoughtfully, partly talking to Lightning and partly to the chick in his hands.

Lightning edged backwards towards him. When she was level with him, she breathed, "Time to jump," and ran for the edge.

"Yeah," Sazh responded absently. He looked up just in time to see her take her final running steps toward the edge. "Hey, hey, hey! Hang on!" Sazh shouted, running forward with his hand stretched forward in the hopes of stopping her but before he could, it was too late and she had already jumped. "What the –? Hey!"

Ignoring his cries, she angled her body so that her nose tipped towards the rapidly-approaching ground below. Seconds before she would have crashed into the trussway, she clicked her fingers, activating her Grav-con unit. At the same time she flipped her body over and landed in a crouch, with an electric blue aura surrounding her in a dome shape. As Sazh watched, transfixed and wide-eyed, she righted herself, brushed herself off, then looked up at him with an expression that said, _Are you coming or not?_

Sazh looked at her, then the chocobo chick, his mind made up. "If she can do it, so can we," he said, coaxing the chocobo chick back into his hair with his hands. He then manoeuvred himself onto the very edge, then clambered down until he was only hanging onto it. As soon as he forced himself to relax, he was falling – not very gracefully – towards the electric aura that still remained after Soldier Girl's landing.

Lightning's lips twitched slightly. She could hear his screams from where she was. It would've been hard not to, to be honest, with the way he was carrying on.

Meanwhile, the ground was coming up a little too fast for Sazh's liking. He thought for sure that he would be flattened by the impact and left on the trussway; so he was very, _very_ surprised when he suddenly stopped as he came into contact with the Grav-con aura. As soon as she heard Sazh's screams subside into "Whoa, whoa...", she set off, knowing that if Sazh was really so hell-bent on sticking to her like a parasite, he would follow.

With a groan, Sazh picked himself up and, just as Lightning predicted, trailed after her as if he was a moth and she was a particularly bright light, guiding him away from the dark.

* * *

While Lightning and Sazh were heading for the Vestige, Snow had found Gadot not too far away from where he initially had fallen. He now had the red-headed man propped up on a bit of fallen debris and was now thinking of ways to awaken him. He tapped his face lightly, with nary a flutter of his eyelids in response. "Come on," Snow murmured, tapping his face again. Still nothing. "Come on!" Finally, after Snow had slapped Gadot's cheeks with more force, he opened his eyes. Gadot looked around at the bodies strewn everywhere: under and over rubble, on top of each other. Clutching his shoulder and, surprisingly alert for someone who had fallen a distance such as he had, he immediately sat up and asked, point-blank, "What about the others?"

Snow merely shook his head in response, the events leading up to the military strike and after still running through his mind like a movie roll: seeing the silver-haired woman standing up to volunteer, leading her to the battle front, letting her take his arm and help him up after she shot at the skytank, her unconscious form dangling from his hand and then slipping through his fingers...

He looked down at his hand. It looked normal, but to him it looked like the hand that let so many people die, including that one silver-haired woman.

"They didn't die!" Snow was wrenched from his memories into the real world by Gadot. "They couldn't have died!"

"Of course not," Snow muttered, becoming distracted once again. And this time, from his place on the ground, Gadot noticed.

"Hey, get a grip, man! What's wrong with you?" Gadot then stood up and popped his left shoulder back into place; which had, evidently, been dislocated at some time during either the fall or the landing.

Unfortunately, Snow wasn't listening. He was thinking about the words of a mother desperate to protect her child. "'Get him home.' Get _who_ home?" Snow asked himself.

An explosion sounded in the distance, forcing Snow to abandon his former train of thought and look back. At first glance it looked like a fireball had latched itself onto a long-since-abandoned building, but upon second glance was actually a skybridge crashing into said building.

"Hey, toss me that," Gadot said, making Snow turn back and face him. He was pointing at the abandoned gun on the ground, no doubt dropped by someone whilst falling. Snow picked it up and tossed it to him.

"Catch."

As Gadot caught the gun, Snow just thought he would lazily drape it over his shoulder like he usually did. That said, he didn't expect him to point it right at his forehead. From a distance that small, there wasn't a doubt that Gadot wouldn't be able to hit him with one bullet.

"What're you doing?" Snow asked, angry surprise both on his face and in his tone.

"So what are you afraid of? You're supposed to be the hero," Gadot replied. He then laughed slightly and rested the gun lazily on his shoulder. "She's waiting there, ain't she? Your lovely bride-to-be?" He gestured in the direction of the Vestige, glowing green and blue in the darkness and surrounded by shadows. "Ain't it about time you picked her up?"

Snow's eyes narrowed at the thought of his beloved, still trapped inside the Vestige. That image alone was more than enough to snap him out of his funk. There would be plenty of time to think about the woman and her words later. Right now, there was another woman who needed saving.

As three airbikes zoomed in to land a little ways away from them, and Gadot and Snow ducked down behind a large bit of rubble, there was no more doubt in Snow's mind. He would not let his beloved down.

"And there's our ride," he stated proudly, hands on his hips as he stood. Gadot righted himself and laughed.

"Now you're talking," Gadot replied, grinning as he nodded.

Snow took the lead as they traversed through the mountains of rubble and the piles of bodies. Snow shook his head. "How could they?"

"Huh?" Gadot asked from behind.

"Nothing."

_I hope everyone's alright, _Snow thought to himself. Up ahead were two pantherons, pacing back and forth and growling as they passed each other.

"Standing there ain't gonna stop us!" Gadot growled, and charged in, his gun at the ready.

"Gadot! Don't go rushing in on your own!" Snow immediately ran after him, right into one of the pantherons' vision. It growled, coiling its body to lunge at him, but Snow threw a hand grenade at it before it had the chance. It exploded from underneath it, causing it to be launched around five feet into the air. It fell back down heavily and its limbs flopped lifelessly on the ground. It was dead.

Snow looked to the side, where Gadot stood over his own pantheron, which was obviously as dead as its companion.

Up ahead were piles of orange-red boxes, and walkways between them. Both men eased through, careful to keep as quiet as possible. As they came closer, a small whirring noise alerted Snow to something a little to his right. When he looked, he saw it was a smallish silver sphere, floating above the ground and slowly turning, like a little planet. When Snow came close to it, it whirred faster and a small opening appeared, just big enough for his hand to get through. Snow gently put his hand inside, and came across something vaguely bottle-shaped. When he pulled it out, he saw it was a potion. When he had put it safely into his pocket, he looked back at the sphere. It was no longer whirring and instead sat dormant a hair's-breadth off the ground, not moving apart from slight, slow bobs that, if you weren't looking directly at it, you would've missed. Snow then ran left to catch up with Gadot, who was crouching behind a particularly large, rust-covered box. From here, they could hear the soldiers strutting around, talking to each other, and the click of machine-guns.

"There they are," Gadot breathed. Snow looked out from behind the box to see several Wardens and two Enforcers guarding the airbikes, looking out for any sign of movement.

"I want every weapon ready to fire," one Enforcer instructed.

"Yes sir!" one of the Wardens, possibly a trainee, replied brightly, readying his gun.

"Stay sharp!" the other Enforcer snapped.

"Alright, on my go," Snow whispered, holding up three fingers as he spoke.

"Right," Gadot replied softly, tensing.

Snow put down one finger, then the second, then the last. "Go!"

Gadot let out a loud battle cry, leaping out and gunning half the soldiers down. The other half yelled out things like, "Deportees!" and, "Let's get 'em!" Of course, since they were dealing with ape-sized men with huge muscles and quick reflexes, they didn't really stand much chance. Especially when one of them was equally vicious with his gun, his fists and his hand-grenades. "That's what I'm talking about!" Snow yelled in triumph when the last soldier was blown sky-high, miraculously leaving all three airbikes unharmed. As soon as they had checked to make sure everyone was dead, or at least had a good whack to the head, they headed toward the bikes and started them up.

"Oh man, that's a sad sound," Gadot lamented, shaking his head at the smooth, silent whir of the airbikes' engines. "Where's the soul?"

Snow wasn't listening. He was staring up at the Vestige, as if entranced. In truth, he was lost in thought. He was caught in between wondering over the silver-haired woman's last words and worrying about his beloved. _Don't worry, baby. Your hero's on his way._

"Hey Gadot?"

Gadot looked up from his airbike's controls. "Yeah?" he asked, looking over to Snow, who had a peculiar gleam in his eye.

"If you don't know _who_ to save, you just...protect them all, right?"

Gadot thought about this for a second, then frowned slightly. "Something on your mind?" Getting no response from Snow, who was again lost in thought, he continued, "You know, you got plenty of time for thinkin' on the way...Hero."

Snow nodded once. "Yeah."

Gadot nodded in response. "Start your engines!"

Both engines revved silently in response.

"Ready...go!"

As they raced through the skies, on the way to check on the rest of NORA, Snow explained that he was 'worried about the kids'. That was certainly part of the problem, but Snow didn't really feel up to divulging the whole accident with the silver-haired woman, nor did he want to relate to him her last words. They circled his head, over and over, battering his skull with their urgency, wanting attention. They were like weeds, planted in his brain. They were all he could think about. Then he would think about his fiancée, and his thoughts would swerve onto that particular road. This continued until they reached the skybridge that the deportees and NORA were on.

When they heard the soft whir of the airbike engines, Lebreau, Maqui and Yuj immediately pointed their guns at the intruders – and almost shot their leader.

"Hey, it's us, it's us! Don't shoot!" Snow yelled as they landed the airbikes next to one already there, probably left by a now-dead soldier. Lebreau and the others laughed, lowering their guns almost sheepishly.

"Snow!" Maqui called as he raced over to the bulky NORA leader and Gadot.

"Since when do you care about kids?" Gadot asked; resuming the conversation they'd had on the way over.

Snow looked down at the hand that had let the silver-haired woman – and so many other lives – slip through his fingers. "Favour for a friend," he murmured as Maqui made it over to them.

"Okay," Gadot mumbled, but was interrupted in saying more by the small blonde engineer.

"Hey Snow! You made it!" Maqui exclaimed, just short of hugging his idol.

"Yo," Gadot greeted as the rest of the NORA gang's founding members joined them.

"Whew," Yuj breathed, while Lebreau stuck with a simple "Hey."

"So, you really managed to use that thing?" Gadot asked, laughing slightly and gesturing to the gun in Maqui's hand. He flushed, remembering that he had almost used it to kill them.

"Nah, I think I'm done," he replied.

"You're done when we are!" Yuj interrupted, hitting Maqui on the back of the head with the back of his hand.

"Ow!" Maqui groaned.

From a ways away, the silver-haired boy and his red-headed companion were watching the NORA crew's exchange.

"That's the one," the boy murmured, his sights set on Snow, who seemed to be having a good time with his friends, seemingly not caring about the fact that his mother died because of him. The boy's anger grew.

"Didn't you have something to tell him?" the red-head asked.

"Yeah," the boy replied.

"All right then!" The red-head raised her fist almost to her chin.

"But...I..." The boy seemed to be lost for words.

"I'll go with you," the red-head soothed.

"What?" The boy's attention was once again focused on the motley crew in front of them.

"You have no idea what it was like!" Maqui complained. He would have said more, had Snow not asked, "Everyone safe?"

Yuj and Maqui looked at each other and grinned. "The army's no match for NORA!" they proclaimed as they posed with their backs to each other, gun out.

"I meant the kids?" Snow clarified, his tone making it a question. Lebreau smacked both boys on the head. "Grow up!" she commanded.

Yuj, rubbing the back of his head, answered, "All accounted for!"

"Okay." Snow looked down at his hand again, flexing it. "Let's keep it that way, alright?"

Meanwhile the two were having a 'discussion' as to whether they should confront the blonde brute or not. Finally the red-headed girl lost patience.

"Go on!" she urged, pushing the boy forward. When the boy didn't move another step, she moved forward and yelled out, "Hey!"

At that moment the airbike Snow was on started up again, causing the two kids to block their ears – the bike's idle was louder than when it actually got moving.

"I'll swing by the Vestige. Keep the kids out of trouble?" Snow asked Gadot.

"You got it. Say hi to the missus for me," Gadot replied, then laughed heartily. "You go skirt-chasing; I take care of the kids! Some husband!"

"Dinner's on me!" Snow laughed back.

"Better be home cooking!"

"When's the wedding, lover boy?" Yuj teased.

"Well don't worry, none of _you,_" Snow gestured to the gang, "are invited." The airbike started to hover just as the NORA crew were protesting about Snow's last remark.

"We're still going!" Yuj yelled.

"Are you serious?" Maqui asked.

"What about me?" Lebreau inquired, ticked.

"Ha! Catch ya later!" Snow yelled back as he hovered higher then zoomed off in the direction of the Vestige.

"Wait! Come back!" the red-head yelled, running to the edge of the skybridge. At that same moment, the brunette that had run after them cleared her throat from behind the silver-haired boy, making him jump and spin in surprise.

The girl was quite beautiful. Glossy golden-brown hair waved perfectly down her back and well past her backside in a plait. Her eyes were the perfect mix of brown, green and blue. She was dressed quite simply – black leather jacket over long-sleeved cotton shirt over singlet, with grey jeans and black combat boots. She seemed unperturbed by all the fighting around her. The boy was taken aback by her sudden appearance.

"From the way you were eye-ballin' that blondie that just rode off into the sunset, you don't like him much, do ya?" Her accent was decidedly unusual. It was much stronger than that of the red-head's, yet they were similar. The boy just stared, until the girl chuckled. "Oh, silly of me. Didn't introduce myself, did I? Name's Keller. Nice to meet ya."

The boy hardly managed to stammer out, "H-Hope Estheim," before running after the red-headed girl, who was now examining the airbikes left behind. She turned to find her silver-haired companion running to catch up to her – followed by the brunette Hope had talked to earlier.

"Say...can any of you fly this?" the red-head asked them.

Hope had experience with them – tenth birthday, he was given a mini-airbike, which were all the rage with young people. Long story short, he crashed into around three different things on the one go and vowed never to get on one again. But then, he was actually developing interest in them again, despite his promise. He still knew all the controls.

"A bit," Hope mumbled, while Keller replied, "Sure."

The red-head clapped her hands in glee. "Alright then! In you go!" she chirped, then pushed Hope into the driver's seat. Keller grinned at the sight.

"Hey, girl with the red hair. What's your name?" Keller asked, still grinning.

"Vanille," the girl supplied happily. "And yours?"

"Keller," the brunette replied.

Vanille climbed into the airbike behind Hope, who became a little uncomfortable. "That way!" she said, pointing in the direction of the Vestige. Keller looked at the other airbike, which was still in top condition. She righted it and turned on the engine, then climbed in and readied the bike to hover.

Hope shook his head and looked down at Vanille's words. "No, no...If we go in there, that thing could – it could make us l'Cie. This is – I don't think I can –"

"You _can_ do it!" Vanille interrupted, placing both hands on the steering grips beside Hope's.

"What are you three doing?" a loud voice boomed. Vanille, Hope and Keller looked up to see Gadot, the hot-headed NORA member, running towards them.

"Uh-oh. Oi, we going or not?" Keller yelled over the engines to Hope.

"Here we go!" Hope started the engine, then managed to hover it before Gadot started running full-tilt towards them. Hope panicked and lost control of the bike. It plummeted off the skybridge.

"Uh-oh," Gadot murmured to himself as he reached the edge of the skybridge, only to rear back in shock as Hope took back control of the airbike and it zoomed past Gadot and up.

"Get back here! Do you hear me? Hey!" Gadot roared.

Keller laughed at the sight before her. She piloted the airbike expertly as she shot past Gadot, making him gasp and jump, and reached Hope's side.

Keller laughed again. "Not bad for a beginner!"

And ignoring Gadot's continued shouts of "Get back here!" they headed off in the direction of the Vestige, not one of them knowing what would happen when they reached it.

…

"Come on, you two!" Keller shouted from inside the Vestige, as Vanille and Hope hovered a ways above her head. In seconds they were down – though not like they expected to. Keller shielded her eyes as Vanille and Hope crashed into the ground, sprawling several feet from where the bike landed.

"Wow, that was...close..." Vanille murmured as she tried to get up. There was a weight on her back; when she peered around to have a look, she was met with silver hair and half-lidded green eyes. As Hope got off her, she helped herself up and all three of them looked around.

"Now, where is the..." Vanille muttered, looking around to see the crashed bike several feet from her. "Oops. Well then..." She kept looking around, seemingly searching for someone, but finding the place empty except for them. "Guess it's...just us." Vanille put her index fingers together and crossed her pinkies in a diamond symbol.

"What did you expect?" Hope asked unkindly from his place on the floor, still kneeling in the place that he landed. "Even soldiers know not to go near the fal'Cie. You become a Pulse l'Cie, and you're finished."

"What do you mean, 'finished'?" both girls said together.

"Haven't you heard, Miss...?"

"Vanille," she interrupted. When Hope looked at her weirdly, she offered a hand to him and continued, "My name. And yours?"

"Hope." He took her hand and Vanille helped him up, brushing him down when he was standing up.

"Thank you," Hope mumbled. "What were we thinking?"

"I don't know about you two, but I wasn't," Keller remarked. "I just came along for the ride."

Vanille put a finger to her chin in thought. "Well, since we're here...let's look around!"

Hope's expression said he'd rather not, but he followed her anyway. Once they'd had a good look around, they moved up some stairs to three wide pillars. They were circular, with flat tops. If Hope tried, he'd be able to climb up and stand on them.

"Oh, check this out!" And like that, Vanille and Keller were away, checking out the two pillars at the end.

"Hey – Vanille, Keller, where are you..."

Vanille was the first to clamber down, with a weird tree-shaped thing in her hands. She wielded it like it was a weapon.

"Well?" she asked, clearly demanding his opinion. At the same time Keller dropped down next to Vanille, wielding two long, sharp swords. She posed with the weapons in her hands, obviously expecting the same thing as Vanille – his opinion.

"That's, uh..." He didn't get to finish his sentence, nor Vanille her twirling, before a pantheron jumped into their midst. Vanille and Keller immediately took up arms beside the confused teen, and Hope reluctantly pulled out his Airwing. After a little bit, Keller jumped forward and sliced through the pantheron, two more taking its place as the first turned to black ashes on the ground. Hope followed her example, throwing his boomerang forward while Vanille kept her distance, using her weapon's long-distance binds to slash through the air and pin one of them in place. Keller was finishing it off when the second pantheron decided that Keller was the perfect target, taking a swipe at her. She just smirked and swiped back with her two swords, severing it into quarters before it, too, turned to dust.

"W-what was...the dust..." Hope stammered.

Keller just sheathed her two swords again as she replied, "Magic. It messes with the way things are supposed to die. Instead of leaving an empty shell behind, the soul takes the shell with it, eventually leaving for the Shadowland, the Void Beyond, whatever it is they call it." She shrugged. "Some say it's the Goddess's Chaos that takes it away into Valhalla, but I don't think that's true. Just a lot of mumbo-jumbo." She grinned and leaned against one of the pillars.

"Okay then," Vanille muttered to herself as she quickly folded up her weapon and placed it in its spot on her fur-skirt. "Back to exploring."

"Better stay close," Hope replied, only to hear Keller snicker in response.

"_You_ may have to, but _I_, for one, have no problems about lookin' ahead," she stated. "I'll go scope out the rest of the area. You two just sit pretty." And with that, she walked downstairs and to the left.

"Whoa," she breathed, looking around. There were three little red bots walking around on thin, tiny stump-like legs. Instead of eyes, there was just a line of neon-blue light across the face, and a neon-blue square outline surrounding them.

"Zwerg droids. Should be fun," Keller breathed, running forward towards one with its back turned. One quick swipe of a sword turned it to black ashes on the ground before they were swept up by a draft. She leaned forward, tensing, waiting for the other droids to turn their backs before swiping at them too. Two more puffs of dust permeated the air. She turned to find a pantheron blocking her way, it growled and tensed to strike. It sprang forward, claws out, ready to kill, but Keller merely ducked, then caught its belly with her swords and swiping it deeply, turning it to dust as well. Keller sheathed her swords again and dusted herself off. It was then that she discovered two things – a floating silver sphere and an abandoned airbike. She went for the sphere first, which spun fast to open a hole big enough for her hand to enter. She grabbed what was inside and pulled it out, examining it in the somewhat-dim light. It was an armband, light brown in colour, with a healing rune inscribed on the inside. When she turned back towards the sphere, she saw it had deactivated, now bobbing slightly a hairs-breadth from the patterned marble floor.

"Sweet," she breathed, putting it into a small black bag situated on her upper arm. She then turned towards the abandoned airbike. It wasn't hard to see whom it belonged to – that blondie Hope was eyeing angrily earlier. She took a deep breath and called, "Hey, you two! Found something you might be interested in!"

She could hear footsteps behind her and turned to find Hope running towards her, with Vanille bringing up the rear. "What? What'd you find?" Hope asked, and then looked behind Keller to see the abandoned airbike. "Is that –? Hmmm..." Hope ran forward past Keller to the airbike. "That's his! Where is he?" Hope mumbled to himself. Keller knew who he was referring to. The blondie.

"Hey! There's an opening through here!" Vanille called from the other side of the area. Keller dragged Hope away from the airbike and to where Vanille was. There obviously used to be an opening there, and at first glance it seemed blocked from the debris. But to Keller, it was a challenge. And Keller loved challenges.

"Alright, let's go!" Keller crowed, jumping onto a piece of debris, which was stable enough to hold her weight. She then jumped onto another piece. She somersaulted the final jump, and she was across.

"Come on, slowpokes!" Keller called from the other side.

Vanille and Hope looked at each other, then followed Keller's example. Once they were over, they turned to find their path blocked by more pantherons – two of them. Keller grinned, ran forward and sliced a head off of one of them, which had lunged at just the wrong moment. The other one growled at Keller, raising its mechanical hackles, and swiped at her, only to have its claws and paw cut off. It whined, then came forward again, only to find itself cut in half, then turned to dust.

_Please don't go looking for trouble,_ Hope thought to himself, knowing it would be no use at all. Keller seemed to him to be the type of woman that just jumped in, knowing full-well she could get herself killed. She liked challenges, doing things just for the hell of it, for the fun, the thrill.

"Aren't either of you scared?" Hope asked, desperate to relieve the silence.

"Mmm, not so much," Vanille replied, while Keller just shook her head and said, "No."

Hope sighed. "You two really don't get it."

Vanille stopped, then whirled around, hands on her hips, losing patience with the fourteen-year-old. "Pulse fal'Cie and l'Cie are bad news," she started, starting to pace in front of him. "That's why Cocoon kicked them out. Get too close to the fal'Cie? One-way ticket to Pulse!" She stopped and faced Hope with an expectant expression on her face.

"That's the Purge in a nutshell, I guess," Keller finished.

"If they catch us here, they'll Purge us too. And then –"

"What's your problem?" Vanille asked, point-blank.

"What's my –? Pulse is Hell on earth!"

Vanille stepped forward and hugged him again. "We'll be okay! Calm down."

Hope pushed her off of him. "Get off me."

Keller laughed. "Come on! The soldiers already sent a search team in here, only to have their Comm devices messed with 'cause of the magic in this place. They're not gonna try that again soon. Relax, kid."

Hope would have replied to that statement, but was interrupted by an echo throughout the Vestige.

"Serah! Can you hear me? Where are you?"

Hope knew that voice.

* * *

Sazh sat on the floor of the dimly-lit chamber they were in, watching Lightning slash repeatedly at the door. The door had a red insignia on it – arrows pointing up, down and to the side. In the middle was a dot, almost like an eye, which was a deeper red than the rest. It was the Pulse l'Cie brand.

"Still won't budge?" Sazh asked, then stood and walked over to Lightning, who continued to slash at the door as if she never heard his words. But she did.

"I think the door is winning," Sazh remarked.

"Why didn't I listen?" Lightning mumbled to herself, stopping in her destruction of the door.

"Uh, beg your pardon?" Sazh asked, leaning closer to hear her words.

Lightning placed her hand upon the door, where the brand's aura pulsed at her touch. She leaned in close to whisper, "It was me. This is my fault." Hints of sadness and regret laced into her otherwise-deadpan tone.

"Beg your pardon?" Sazh repeated.

Lightning looked up at Sazh, her cerulean eyes hard. She took her hand off the door and replied, "Cover your ears."

"Oh, blast charge? Hold on, hold on!" A blast charge was exactly what it sounded like. Sazh ran to the back of the chamber, kneeled down and covered his ears in record time. "Alright, go for it! Make it happen!"

Lightning replaced her hand on the door, and the brand pulsed again, as if it could feel her regret. "I'm so sorry," she apologised. "Please let me in. Please?" she asked, bowing her head and closing her eyes as if in defeat.

The door, as if hearing her plea, split and dragged itself into the wall, leaving them free to enter the Vestige. Hearing the door open, Sazh uncovered his ears and looked behind him, where there was no more door. "What the –? Hey!"

"Right," Lightning breathed, looking around at the unfamiliar surroundings.

"What did you – how'd you open it?" Sazh asked, confused. He didn't hear any explosions, nor were there any signs of brute force. How _did_ she open it?

Lightning merely walked forward, sheathing her Blazefire Sabre as she did so.

"After you," Sazh gestured after her, defeated. He walked through the opening that wasn't there before, and heard it shut with a clang of metal on metal as soon as he was through. That wasn't what he was focused on, however. He was focused on his new surroundings.

The temple-like structure's inside was like nothing he had ever imagined. The colour scheme seemed to be different shades of yellow-gold, grey-silver and blue-green, made murky by the many layers of aged dust that choked its floors and walls. They were standing on a walkway, with a grey-black stone – or was it concrete? – wall, about as high as Lightning's waist, stopping them from falling down to the lower levels of the Vestige, which, now that they were in it, they could see was monstrous in its size. Prisms of Pulse energies seemed to keep the whole place from crumbling, as there did not seem to be any stone pillars – perhaps the ancient people or peoples that built the Vestige ran out of stone? Sazh couldn't say. Smaller stone pillars were attached to the stone walls surrounding the walkway; on those pillars, Sazh could see glowing yellow beams attached to them – pure Pulse energies? Sazh wondered what they did. Up ahead he could see two more pantherons guarding a set of stairs, where Lightning was running –

"A_gain_?" Sazh grumbled to himself, then pulled out his Vega 42's, aimed, and fired past Lightning at one pantheron, hitting it right between the eyes. It fell limply to the ground before it burst into black ash, as if it were too fragile for the marble floor below it. If that threw Lightning off in any way, she never showed it, choosing instead to take care of the other pantheron, which was still running toward her. One slice in just the right place severed the bioweapon's head before both pieces burst into black ash like its companion before it.

Lightning began to make her way up the steps, with Sazh running to catch up. Up the stairs they both went until they reached the landing, where three more pantherons waited to strike. As soon as she saw them, Lightning ducked down behind the steps remaining and smoothly flicked her Blazefire Sabre into gun mode. She aimed steadily at one pantheron but locked eyes with Sazh, who immediately got the message. He aimed his two guns at the other two pantherons, and at Lightning's gesture, they each fired. Three pantherons dropped onto the floor before they turned to dust, and floated into the air. Lightning stood, smoothly sheathed her weapon and walked forward. Something white caught her eye, and as she looked down, she saw an incisor obviously left behind by one of the pantherons. She picked it up and immediately felt it pulse with an almost diabolic aura. She placed the wicked fang into her thigh-pack and drew her gunblade once again.

She was in a more open space than the chamber they were in before, with whirring machinery on either side of her – engines, maybe? Ahead of her were two groups of Zwerg droids, on either side of the walled-in open space. The group on the left side, composed of four of the small red scanners, seemed to be guarding a silver sphere. Ahead of her was the way forward – guarded by a dormant Myrmidon.

Lightning tensed, then ran forward, gunblade out, and slashed each Zwerg droid. With just one slash, they each turned to black dust, several leaving behind small pieces of fabric. It took all of five seconds. A low whirring sound directed Lightning to the side, where the smallish silver sphere bobbed up and down, turning slowly as if in orbit. When she stepped closer, the sphere whirred faster and a hole opened up in it that was big enough for a hand, a wrist, and not much else. Lightning put her hand inside the sphere and felt around until her hand came into contact with something immeasurably soft and delicate. She pulled it out to discover that what she held was a fiery feather, coloured every shade of red, yellow, orange and pink you could imagine. It was like holding a summery sunset in her hands. She recognised it immediately as the feather of a phoenix, said to be able to revive one person from the depths of their subconscious. She pushed it carefully into the red pack strapped onto her upper thigh, just underneath the limits of her mini-skirt, then eyed the dormant Myrmidon. Its limbs were folded inside its body, and the jets underneath it kept it floating in mid-air.

"What do we do with this one?" Sazh asked.

"If we're quiet enough, we could probably edge around the thing and keep going up," Lightning replied, keeping a hand near her gunblade should the Myrmidon awaken. She then walked to the side of it, careful where to place her feet. As Sazh tried to follow her lead, the Myrmidon folded outwards, its spider-like legs touching the floor as it came to life with a whir. Quick like her namesake, Lightning jumped up and landed on its head, using her Gunblade to sever it from the rest of the Tilter's body. She back-flipped gracefully off just as it turned to ash, landing in a crouch. She stood, ignoring Sazh's quiet look of surprise and awe as she ascended to yet another landing, where a pantheron and two Zwerg Droids waited.

"You coming or not?" she asked, impatient. Sazh immediately ran up the steps after her, only to stop and stare as three more piles of ash littered the landing they stood on. Lightning flipped her gunblade back into its holster and looked at Sazh with a raised eyebrow, her eyes cold as ever.

_Does she ever smile?_ Sazh wondered as she walked casually over to a silver sphere, reached in, and pulled out several clear flasks filled with green liquid. Potions. She threw two to Sazh, who caught them and placed them in his coat pocket as she placed the other two inside her red pack strapped to her thigh.

Another set of stairs led up to another landing. As they climbed, Sazh began to talk.

"If those robot things are still around, might be some soldiers trapped in here too…except they'd probably be l'Cie by now, right?" When he got no response from his companion, he continued. "Not even human anymore. Just Pulse l'Cie, and enemies of Cocoon." They reached the landing, and Sazh folded his arms as he looked up the next flight of steps, leaning against the short wall lining their path. "Can't show 'em any mercy."

* * *

On an upper level of the Vestige, Snow walked through a seemingly endless path with too many staircases to count. He looked in front of him. Down two flights of steps there were two pantherons circling a green bar of energy, piquing Snow's interest.

"Wonder what that's for?" he softly asked aloud as he continued to walk forward. The two pantherons then spotted him, and ran straight for him. They stopped just in front of him, growling, their mechanical hackles raised. Snow grinned and raised his fists. "Come and get it!"

They growled once more, and lunged as one. Snow laughed as he dodged, leaving a well-placed hand-grenade in his place. By the time the smoke cleared, all that was left of them were several chipped incisors and black dust. Snow picked up the chipped canines and walked casually over to the green bar. He touched it, and the ground moved beneath him as the bar turned yellow. He could feel the ground he was standing on jolt as it moved upward and to the side, glowing red before settling again and leaving him with a new path to follow. "Just hold on, Serah," he breathed.

After several minutes of traversing what seemed like hundreds more staircases, up and down, he spotted another green beam in front of him, once again guarded by pantherons and a small red Zwerg Droid.

"And there's the next one," Snow noted, grinning as he approached the Droids first, gaining the strategic advantage when he caught them by surprise. Two strategically-placed kicks sent both Droids flying through the air, slamming into the ascending staircase behind them and turning to black ash. The pantheron quickly took notice of its missing allies, and lunged at Snow, who slid back-first underneath its attack and kicked its belly, sending it flying. It smacked hard into the wall, and after a few slow moments, got back onto its feet, whining low in its throat like a wild dog. It ran forward once again, only to be pushed back by Snow's fists. He kept the stubborn pantheron back with kicks and punches until it, too, dissolved into black dust, dissipating into the air.

"What's up with that?" he asked himself. True, the soldiers and bioweapons outside the Vestige hadn't just disappeared into the air like the bioweapons here. Did it have something to do with the beams of energy inside the Vestige? The fal'Cie itself? There was much to think about, but not now. He stepped forward, confident this time as he lightly touched the next green beam of light. It, like the last, turned yellow, and at the end of the path an oval-shaped platform lowered.

"All right!" Snow crowed, running up the last two flights of steps and jumping onto the platform. When it began to lower, he bumped his fists together.

"Hang on, baby! You're hero's on the way!" he called out, hoping that she would hear him, wherever in the Vestige she was.

* * *

_**Chapter done, hope you liked it. If you did, don't forget to review…or something similar.**_

_**Bye for now, kupos!**_


	4. Frustration

_**A/N: I'm in deep (insert 's' word here) right now, aren't I? Yes, I know it's been months since I last posted, but a mixture of horrible yr 10 schoolwork and equally-horrible writers' block has kept me from doing so. And having friends high on a mixture of sugar and forced-upon-them drugs isn't exactly helping matters – especially when they're suffering from depression, and I'm not talking about me. Long story that no-one wants to hear/read.**_

_**It might take a while, but – and I know I probably should've started out doing this – I'm going to write up a maximum of ten chapters per story, put them in storage and post them every week. That way, when this happens again – and, mark my words, it will – it won't be as bad because I'll have something to post. It'll take a while, but it's solid. Sound okay?**_

_**Enjoy the story!**_

* * *

**Chapter 4 – Frustration**

An annoyingly familiar voice drifted down to Hope, infiltrating his ears, burrowing into his head and planting the words into his memory.

"Hang on, baby! You're hero's on the way!"

Keller and Vanille looked up, both thinking the same thing. _He's coming down._

"So he _is_ here," Hope said, echoing the women's thoughts. "Calling himself a hero…" Hope seethed. Because of him, his mother…no. He wouldn't go there. He would surely break down if he tried.

Even as the echoes of his voice faded away, four yellow prisms of light beamed down, parallel with each other, and as they aligned into a square formation, a small set of stairs lifted from the chasm that was there before. At the same time, the Pulse l'Cie brand seared itself onto the door to the left of the set of stairs and then disappeared, taking the door with it.

"There's our next destination," Keller noted, calm as ever. Hope envied her.

"He's coming our way," Vanille pointed out, turning to Hope with her hands clasped behind her back, leaning over to him slightly and piercing his green eyes with her own.

"What should I do?" Hope asked her, slight fear underlining his words.

"Tell him what you need to," Vanille replied, unclasping her hands and standing up straight.

"We'll go with you, kiddo," Keller added.

"But…nothing I say will – will change what happened."

"Hmmm…" Vanille tapped her chin in thought. "We could just…run away."

Hope nodded, allowing Vanille to take his wrist and lead him up the steps to the door, now thrown wide open. Keller allowed them to lead, instead dashing to the right to collect from an unguarded chest at the end of the path. Inside was an iron bangle with the health rune etched into the metal. She pocketed the bangle and then raced after the two kids, who were waiting for her. They passed through the doorway together, walking into a steadily-increasing darkness. Keller brushed her hand over the wall to her right side, and when she no longer felt it, she dragged her companions with her. Ahead, it looked like there was no end to the darkness, but as they drew nearer another door opened, leading them out of the Sacrarium, which was the chamber they had just left. A new, different chamber was what they ran into, and as Keller looked around, she immediately spotted two more pantherons guarding another sphere. After easily taking care of them both, Keller looked inside it to find another, stronger set of blades that looked similar to the weapons she wielded. These were stronger, sharper, and had two sleek green lines down the sides of both, stopping inches from the end of the blades themselves. The handles were covered with a strongly-woven dark-blue fabric. Keller grinned to herself. She bound the two blades together with a piece of thin wire and placed them inside her jacket, where there was an inner pocket big enough for the bundle to fit. Satisfied that they wouldn't fall out when she ran, she motioned for Vanille and Hope to follow her. She walked calmly down two flights of stairs and up another, until they were in the centre of a three-way crossroads. As Vanille and Hope looked up and around them, an inhuman roaring sounded from all sides. Keller cursed; the first time Hope had heard her do so. All three of them backed up until they were back-to-back-to-back, facing the three paths that the roaring had come from.

A terrifying sight met their eyes: gold gates made of energy alone were slightly transparent, letting humanoid creatures through them. They seemed to be covered in navy-blue crystal with hints of dark purple at the edges. In the middle of their chests lay what looked like a red eye with a white dot at its centre. They were slowly shuffling along in groups of at least three, huge clawed hands tipped with red scrabbling at their pale faces in what looked like agony.

"Wh-what are they?" Hope asked, trying and failing to keep his fear at bay.

"Cie'th," Vanille answered, whipping out her weapon and holding it tightly. "L'Cie who failed!"

"This, kid," Keller continued, gesturing to the Cie'th shambling toward them, "is what happens when l'Cie fail to complete the Focus a fal'Cie gives them." She pulled out her blades in preparation for the horde of shambling Cie'th circling them, but before any of them could act, loud yelling drew their attention to the left side, where Snow was rushing toward them from behind the line of Cie'th. He barrelled through one of them, rolled into a crouch and straightened, using his arms to block Vanille and Hope.

"Let's even these odds!" he shouted.

"Hey, Blondie!" A blade whistled past him and into the chest of one Cie'th, which immediately turned to dust before them. Keller ran past him to retrieve it. "Stay outta my way, alright? You might get stabbed."

"Right," Snow replied, kicking a Cie'th into a stone pillar, where it lay until Keller finished it off. High-tension wires tore through the air, binding one Cie'th and forcing it to the floor. Snow looked back to see Vanille clutching her weapon tightly, not letting the Cie'th escape. Another blade whistled through the air and finished it off. Hope's Airwing flew out from his hand, repeatedly hitting every Cie'th in the area and killing one when his boomerang hit it in the eye at its chest.

Keller's blades flew past her allies and performed the killing blow on almost every Cie'th they encountered, almost never missing, until only three were left. They huddled together, as if knowing what would come next. Snow threw a hand-grenade right at their feet, which promptly exploded and launched them into the air, turning two of them to dust. Vanille finished the other one off.

"You got good aim," Snow directed at Keller, who smirked.

"I try," she replied. "Name's Keller, by the way. Didn't quite catch yours."

"I didn't give it. Name's Snow," he said, extending his hand for her to shake. She had a firm grip. Snow was reminded of Lebreau, just in the way Keller shook his hand. He turned to Vanille and Hope.

"How'd you get in here? You've gotta leave!"

Hope glared at him, whereas Vanille smiled awkwardly, lacing her fingers under her chin. Snow sighed.

"Okay, listen. Find someplace to hide and keep quiet. Once I find Serah, we'll all leave together." Hope looked over to Vanille. He thought he saw a glimmer of recognition stir in her eyes when Snow said the name 'Serah'.

"You'll be home in time for dinner!"

Hope forgot about whatever he saw before. He turned back to Snow, his glare back in place. "You –"

"That include me, too?" Keller interrupted Hope smoothly, hands on hips as she raised her eyebrow at the blonde. "Do I look like a kid to you?"

"'Course not," Snow shot back at her. He then turned back to Vanille and Hope and waved. "Later."

"Wait!" Vanille yelled. Snow stopped and turned back to them. "Who's…Serah?"

"My wife. Future wife, that is…" Snow scratched the back of his neck. "She's a Pulse l'Cie."

Vanille put her hands to her mouth in shock. "Oh no…"

"She's in here somewhere along with that fal'Cie. I've got to find her, and set her free."

Hope snapped. "What's wrong with you? Why do you want to help a l'Cie? They're the enemy!" He looked down at his feet, then back up at the face of the man he had recently grown to hate so much. "How can you save a l'Cie, and not…and not…" He stamped his foot in frustration. "That's insane!"

"Probably. But I gotta do something, right?" Snow waved as he made his way to the middle staircase. "I'll be back!"

Hope sank to his knees. Vanille stepped forward slightly, then turned back to Hope. "Should we wait around for him, and hitch a ride?"

"I'd rather go to Pulse!" Hope snapped, bringing his fists down onto the marble floor.

"That could easily be arranged, kid," Keller interrupted fiercely. "Calm down, all right?"

Hope didn't listen. He didn't care. "Why is this happening to me? When they found the fal'Cie the other day, we were just visiting Bodhum. But the army took us…threw us on that train…"

Keller grimaced. She understood exactly what the kid was going through. Vanille knelt beside him, patting his shoulder soothingly, waiting for him to continue.

"And because of that guy, Mom is…" Hope let the sentence trail off there. "And he wants to help a l'Cie?"

Footsteps sounded on the stairs, and Snow appeared again. Keller sorely hoped that he didn't hear the boy's rant. "Hey again," he said, stiffly waving his hand.

Keller nodded to him. Vanille looked at him and said, "Hey."

Vanille leaned over to Hope, clasping his hands and forcing him to look at her. "Let's go with him!"

"What?" Hope asked, frowning slightly.

"You've gotta talk to him, Hope," Vanille replied. "If you don't take this chance, you'll regret it forever." Hope saw regret in her eyes. What does she have to regret? Nevertheless, he knew she was right.

"Okay."

"Okay!" Vanille pulled Hope up to his feet, a bright smile gracing his features.

"Okay, then!" Keller said, turning to Snow. "Where are we going, exactly?"

"To Serah," he replied. "Let's go!"

They all set off with Snow in the lead. Hope fell in behind, trying hard not to focus on anything but the enemies they encountered.

* * *

"What's gotten into you, soldier? Thought you came for a fight," Sazh asked as Lightning kept going up the steps. She stopped abruptly, hands curled into fists.

"My sister…" she began, not knowing how to explain in a way that her companion would understand. From what he had said before, she gathered that he hated Pulse fal'Cie and l'Cie more than the Sanctum. How could she explain her sister's situation to someone like that?

"Your sister?" Sazh inquired, running forward until he was in front of her, making her face him, but she let her eyes drift to the side.

"She's a l'Cie."

"A Pulse l'Cie?" Lightning nodded once.

"The fal'Cie has her captive. But I'll find her." Her hands flexed, as if itching to grasp her gunblade.

"Is she still…?" Lightning began to walk forward, but Sazh stopped her. "What was her Focus?"

Lightning stopped again, unsure how to answer.

"What did the fal'Cie order her to do? It wasn't 'blow up Cocoon', or anything like that, was it?" Lightning looked to the side, refusing to meet his eyes as she answered, "I didn't ask."

Before another word could be spoken, a rumbling sound could be heard from the top of the last flight of steps, along with an inhuman roaring – or was it moaning? When they looked up, they saw a keyhole-shaped door burn with the Pulse l'Cie brand before it and the door disappeared, leaving the beings behind it free to come down the steps. They were humanoid, covered in navy-blue and dark purple crystal. Their claws were dark purple tipped with red, and looked sharp. In the centre of their chests a large red circle with a white dot in the middle lay. It looked like an eye.

"Listen to me," Sazh began, hoping to finish before Lightning stormed off again. "When a person gets cursed by a fal'Cie, they become a l'Cie. Then they get given a Focus, right?" When Lightning didn't answer, he continued, frowning slightly as he said, "How do I put this? If they don't carry it out, they become one o' those things." He gestured to two of the humanoid crystal monsters already down the stairs and heading in the opposite direction to Sazh and Lightning. "What I'm saying is," Sazh continued, "if your sister's gone that far –" As soon as he said those words, Sazh knew he'd made a mistake. A brief flash of pain stole over Lightning's features for a second, then her hands balled into tight fists.

"I – I mean…! She might still…how can I…? Oh man," Sazh fumbled for words as Lightning glared at him, daring him to finish. "There's no way to turn a l'Cie back into a human. Even if she completes her Focus, there's no changing her fate. She'll live her life as a fal'Cie slave." Lightning's features twisted in pain once again. "Don't make her suffer."

She snapped and pushed him back. "Just say it! Any l'Cie…anyone who might ever become a l'Cie should be wiped off the face of Cocoon!" She gave him a look colder than any she'd given him so far, then walked forward until she was in front of him. "It's people like you who started the Purge in the first place," she shot over her shoulder to him.

She knew he was trying to help in his own way, but she didn't need it. He should've just stayed quiet – should just keep quiet now – but he wouldn't. He struck her as the type who filled silences with awkward small talk.

"So…that's a Cie'th, huh?" he asked to no-one in particular. Lightning's right eye twitched.

"Hey, look behind those Cie'th, over there!" He pointed at the dead end straight ahead of them, where two Cie'th stood guard over two silver spheres, one slightly larger than the other. Lightning hunched over slightly, her right hand hovering near the handle of her Sabre as she carefully approached the two Cie'th, who seemed to be in their own little world of painful agony. One of them shed a milky-white tear, which turned to crystal before hitting the floor. Lightning almost felt sorry for the creatures – until one of them spotted her. It roared and swiped at her head, which she neatly ducked. She tried to sever one of its arms with her Sabre, but the Cie'th's crystallised skin was tough. She could barely do more than cut partway through it. As it faced her, the eye at its chest burning, Lightning raised her Sabre and stabbed through the eye. It immediately fell, turning to dust. She heard roaring from behind her and whirled around with her Sabre ready to strike, just as Sazh fired his guns. The bullets hit the eye and the Cie'th exploded into ashes.

"What the…?" Lightning looked up as the black ashes that used to be Cie'th dance in the air, leaving behind another milky-white tear. She reached up with her other hand, making the ash dance around her palm. "How…?" She did remember seeing those pantherons die in the same way, but she never paid it any mind, more focused on finding her sister, but now that she actually focused on the ash…it was definitely strange, to say the least. She then turned to the silver sphere, still floating in the air, waiting to be opened. It opened up and Lightning felt around inside to feel something hard and cool encased in leather. She pulled it out to see a brand-new gunblade, with the word 'Gladius' etched into the metal. She'd heard of these. They were modelled from gunblades excavated from a Pulse Vestige similar to this one, years and years ago. They were a strong, sturdy model, only outmatched by its even stronger counterpart, the 'Helter-skelter', possibly the strongest weapon used by Guardian Corps soldiers to date. The Gladius's blade was shaped differently, and had a light-orange line on the tip which continued down to the handle. Lightning swiped it through the air, testing it. It was lighter than her Blazefire Sabre, she noticed, cutting it through the air easily. Satisfied, she carefully attached its holster to that of her Sabre, keeping the Gladius in her grip.

There was another item in the sphere as well, Sazh noticed, as it still seemed to be open, and not dormant like all the other ones were. He hesitantly reached inside and found a dark-crimson band inscribed with a strength rune: two s's entwined together. Suddenly Sazh remembered the name of the shambling Cie'th they had been fighting: they were called Ghouls, because of the similarity they had to the mythical ghouls that haunted houses, moaning warnings. Then there were Ghasts, the Ghoul's stronger counterparts. Those things used the fire element to their advantage as well as their bulky fists, one bigger than the other. None could quite say why that was. Sazh only hoped there were no Ghasts in the Vestige.

The two unlikely comrades returned to the staircase, where another Ghoul waited, its head cradled in its clawed hands as it seemed to sob continuously. Lightning crept up to it, her new Gladius still in her hand, and sliced through the shambling Cie'th like a hot knife through butter. The corners of her mouth twitched. _Much better,_ she thought as the Cie'th turned to ashes. With no more barriers in front of them, they ran up the steps, only to be confronted by yet more Cie'th. Shadows crossed the floor, and Sazh looked up to see more of the things, only these ones had wings.

"Shit, these things grow _wings_?" Sazh asked in a panicky voice.

"Haven't you heard of Wights before?" Lightning asked pointedly, Gladius at her side.

Sazh spluttered, trying to answer the pinkette. She simply shrugged and walked forward to the four Cie'th on the ground. She proceeded to the left, taking out two of them effortlessly with her new weapon while Sazh shot the ones on the right side. Every one of them exploded into ashes. More stairs lay on the right side, and both proceeded to climb.

"How many stairs are there in this place?" Lightning snapped at no-one in particular, anxious to get her sister and get the hell out.

"I don't know!" Sazh snapped back, clearly in as much of a hurry as she was to get out of there.

They finally reached the keyhole-shaped doorway of sorts that they'd noticed before, guarded by yet more Cie'th, easily taken care of thanks to Lightning's Gladius, but as they walked through, they saw a Cie'th on the floor that looked very different from the others they had encountered. As it stood up, they noticed its skin was an almost mesmerising blue, not light but not dark either, and had a very bulky build, but Sazh immediately recognised it by the huge crystallised fist on its left side. It was a Ghast.

"Whatever these things used to be, they sure ain't human now," Sazh noted uneasily.

"Stay away from the arms," Lightning advised before charging in to attack it close-range. Sazh fired some bullets to keep it distracted. It roared and a ball of fire erupted from the eye in the middle of its chest – more powerful than any manadrive – straight for Sazh. He dodged, but only just. Moments later, Lightning succeeded in slicing through one of its arms, which immediately turned to dust. It roared again, this time in pain, before swiping at her with its other arm, which Lightning neatly dodged. It prepared to send a ball of fire her way, but before it could two shots rang out in the vast building, and the Ghast turned to dust.

"Thanks," Lightning said, deadpan.

"You're welcome," Sazh replied.

**...**

After defeating several more Cie'th, Lightning and Sazh finally reached a door similar to the one they had to get through to enter the Vestige, but this one was open. They ran through it into darkness that continued for several more feet until a small dot of light emerged ahead, which got bigger and brighter the closer they came to it, until they were no longer in the dark hallway, but in a slightly larger, brighter chamber. Above red-tinted lights shone down, shadows made by several metal arches placed along the walkway, and in their way stood at least six Ghouls and two Ghasts at the end. None of them looked very happy to see them.

"We won't accomplish anything just by looking at them," Lightning muttered as she tensed her muscles to attack the first Ghoul. Once it was dust, she took off for the next one. One by one they fell to her gunblade, made easier by the Gladius she still carried, until only the two Ghasts at the end were left.

"Might be easier if we just shoot the eyes," Sazh said uneasily. Lightning flipped the Gladius into gun mode, loaded it and shot at one of the Ghasts, which immediately turned to ash as the bullet hit its mark. The other Ghast noticed and roared before lumbering over to the duo.

"Oh merciful Maker…" Sazh fretted, his hands shaking as they clasped onto his weapons. Lightning ran towards the Cie'th; it swiped at her with its fist, which she dodged, pink hair flying. She cut off the arm it used to try to hit her before she stabbed it in the chest, right where the eye lay. It roared one last time before turning to dust.

From watching her in battle, Sazh got the impression that she was more at home on the battlefield than anywhere else. She certainly had more skills than most military soldiers – not that he knew many. She belongs in Eden, protecting the Primarch, not in Bodhum, Sazh thought. Then again, if she were, they wouldn't be in here, and nor would Lightning's sister – whoever she was.

As they walked, the floor beneath them moved up to yet another staircase. Once they had made it up, Lightning immediately ran to the middle of the floor, where a fragile-looking girl who could be no older than eighteen lay.

A girl with pink hair.

* * *

_**A/N: Alright, chapter done for the week! Leave whatever love you want in reviews or flames (that way I know that you're at least reading) or whatever, and I'll see you all next week!**_

_**BTW, all those lazy-arses that don't review, I've seen a story get more than 2k reviews before, so no excuses! Review, please review! You'll motivate me to put chapters up faster!**_

_**Alright, see you next week guys! Have a great Easter break!**_


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